Mar 30/07
Post-War BOMB!!!
Today we have another urban Angolan guest post by Benn loxo listener, DJ Chief Boima:
“So Kuduro. It seems to be making some waves on the international scene. And reflections on why lead me to thoughts on post war youth expression. Young people who grow up seeing humanity at it’s worst feeling the need to create something put something in the world, blow it up, and not themselves. Youth, fueled by emotions: anger, sadness, jubilation, create.
When the war is over, the world takes a peak into a society that many times is left for years, isolated to deal with its issues on its own.
So now we have Kuduro. Another ghetto expression where dancing replaces shooting. While the roots of Kuduro go way before the war was over, it is now that it’s getting some international attention. As for reasons why it’s getting attention, I would like to speculate on some deep emotional connection to violence that is counteracted by music, or go off on how many times the internet creates bandwagon trends, and then leaves when they find the next it thing, but the explanation could be as simple as the fact that so many people become displaced from a country and it’s culture during conflict times that their culture gets dispersed throughout the world in the diaspora. People living abroad want to connect to home, especially if they can’t go back, so they bring a part of home with them. The original international distribution is migration.
I don’t know a lot about the history of Angola, so I won’t go any further on what’s going on there now. All I can say is I love this music. It resonates with me, and always gets the crowds movin’. It’s crazy danceable with a clave backbone, (we are close to Congo here, and as hinted in my previous post I know, there’s a Rumba/Soukous/Kuduro Connection) an electronic 808 thump, created on the computer and ready for internet distribution, some hand claps for those disco/house throwbacks, (percolator eat your heart out!) and a fast orgulloso lyric that represents “where you’re from.” With all these ingredients, you have a mix for great music.
If you want to pick some of this music up a good starter is Frederic Gaillano’s CD available on Calabash. Buraka Som Sistema available on iTunes. Dog Murras is available on various Portuguese mail order sites, Puto Prata, Os Alameda, and Se Bem have also made some great tunes.
And if you’re in the states and you don’t know someone that just visited Africa who can sell you CD’s at three times the cost, these are two sites for music called CaboVerdeOnline, and Acheio.com. I’m not gonna vouch for them because I haven’t used them, but if you’re dying to get your hands on some hard copies here’s a start. Also if you’re in Europe FNAC Portugal carries Kuduro CD’s and DVD’s. I don’t think they have a ton, but you can order them online. Some of these groups are touring and Kuduro is spreading through Europe by way of Portugal, so just look around your town to get involved. Watch Kuduro dancing on You Tube.
These are my favorite Kuduro songs that I’ve heard so far. Nao Reipeitao Neh has the best beat I’ve ever heard. Hand claps I can’t get enough of! And Meu Povo’s drum intro and Angola Chants make me jump everytime I hear them. Enjoy…”
Amazing, as usual. Thanks, Boima.
Alameda – Nao Reipeitao Neh
Dog Murras – Meu Povo
Oh thanks…
I have listend to a lot of different tunes. Some have noises which hurt me in my ears… As I see it it is the kind of music, because sometimes it is semba based rhythm and sometimes dombolo – but allways it sounds like kuduru. And sometimes it floats in western house music… The kuduru from Cabo Verde is a little different…
…an important point: it is dance music.
A music style is a dance style, it belongs together to get into and to feel it, I suppose.
If we listen, it is just a part of it.
Few months ago, I produced a TV show on the kuduro with Dj Frederic Galliano.
You can watch some images here: http://tinyurl.com/28z3ot
It is dance music. Of course. So I’ll add this. My experience is that there are certain ideas of pride and cultural and historical expeiences that go into that dance and expression that make certain dance movments unique to a situation. I’m not Angolan so I don’t know, but I do know that every ethnic group, or tribe, or country has it’s own dance that they feel in their blood. That’s why we have parades and carnavals and celebrations to show that. The Kuduro from Cabo Verde must be different for a REASON. I even heard an interview with Mr. Galliano that said he had to be initiated into the Kuduro producer ranks, like it wasn’t something you could just do. I guess my point is that it is dance music FROM somewhere and that somewhere shaped its sound and style and the culture that surrounds it, that’s what makes it so exciting to me. Just like reggae or hip hop or house or ndombolo or mbalax or kwaito, or samba, you know?…
Check out Os Lambas, they are currently the hottest Kuduro band in Angola, they have a rather good “Cidade de Deus” style video as well, which was played all the time on South African MTV this summer.
Thank You
KUDURU FROM CABO VERDE from when there is a kuduru from cabo verde this music is from ANGOLA from the ghettos of luanda dont try to misundestanding people and dont do same as you did with angolan kizomba cabo verde as their musical culture wich is very rich please leave kizomba,kuduru,semba kilapanga,etc for angolan that das no mean other peoples cannot playing but when you speak about those music you have to say where its caming from.
Hello, my name is Toke and I manage kudurofiles.podomatic.com from Luanda, my home town. Is very interesting to read your comments over Kuduro beats.
First of all we must know that there isn’t a records industry in Angola. There’s no cd or vinil factorys in the country. (All disc factorys have been burst by the 30 years of civil war that has ended in 2002).
There is some management, most of all not trully professional. There are regular live shows, but when an artist gets a contract his disc must be printed outside the country.
So, how come there are so many Kuduro tunes? Because where ther’s no industry people find solutions, home solutions.
By all Luanda Musseques there are home studios where youngs can record (usualy low-fi tech), where they press blank cd-rs, with only a jet-ink paper backcover as low printed cover, and with plenty of mispelled portugese words (like me in english
)
Then, a cd-r army of young informal sellers goes through all Luanda’s streets selling in the middle of the infernal overcrowded town trafic. Two and an half usd dolar each.
Old school Kuduro was more instrumental; no days Kuduro is more agressive and spoked, almost all spoked!
About the comment from Anonymous – July 20th, 2007 at 3:28 am – I must say that I corrobore his idea that there’s only a place where kuduro is produced, and that place is Luanda. I never heard a capverdian Kuduro! And Kuduro from Lisbon is fake to ours ears…
For instance the first Buraka record where ignored in Luanda for almost two years, until UNITEL phone company used “Yah” and “Wawaba” in a TV commercial pub.
The fact is that Buraka’s sound is a little to much smooth and at the same time, to much sofysticated for angolans years.
But in 2008 and much becose of “The Sound Of Kuduro” they are now getting the deserved attention and more than inicial indulgent smiles from angolans kuduro fans.
And, to angolan Kuduristas musicians Buraka Sound Sistema sound is having a very positiv effect, in the melodic issue.
For me, what is the little secret of Kuduro sounds? Well, the non liofilizated musical production; the home made solutions – that leaves to some trully sound aicdents -, some come great, some are abnormal, and some is genial!
Wrong way to record, masterizing or leveling the sound can produce interesting things!
No trully sound engenier would like to have his name in those kind of home Kuduro records!
For the last, angolans are trully informal kind of people who find they way trough hard moments. And, angolans breath music from the mornig trough the night. The moment to laugh, to dance, to have a talk with friends around the night hot Luanda’s bars is never wasted!
Thank for your attention
just keep the beat going!
Toke
Luanda-Angola